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quire of their Master which of them should be the greatest?

How does our Lord reprove and instruct them? Instead of delivering a lecture on the abstract nature and advantages of a state of mind with which they appeared to be almost entirely unacquainted; "he called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them-and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

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III. THE IMPORTANCE OF POSSESSING IT.

I. THE TEMPER THAT DISTINGUISHES THE SUBJECTS OF DIVINE GRACE. It is infantile. We must be "as little children." But it is not to be inferred that we are to resemble them in every thing

We are not to be like them in ignorance: "Be ye not children in understanding." A grayheaded babe would be an unnatural and a shocking sight: and yet there are persons who have been many years in the religious world, who have never cultivated their minds, nor improved their privileges and opportunities; and who may be addressed in the words of the apostle, "When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

ness:

We are not to resemble them in fickle"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Children are extremely versatile. Though they are impressed with a thousand things, and seem for the time incapable of growing weary of them, they pursue nothing with certainty and constancy. And there are men, there are professors like them. They have no determinate sentiments; they have no fixed plan; they live extempore; they wander from party to party, they rove from preacher to preacher; you can place no dependence upon them; their attachment and behaviour to-day are no proofs of their attachment and behaviour to-morrow. Let not such think to rise to eminence. Consistency, steadiness, is essential to character. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." We are not to resemble them in sullen

ness, in waywardness, in pettishness. Have you never met with persons whom it is impossible to please? Or whose importance and vanity are gratified by the perplexity of your attempt? It is not because you employed the wrong expedient that you were not successful; any other would have met with the same fate. The more you allure, the further are they off-the very thing to which our Saviour refers. "Whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented."

like little children. And yet we are enjoined In all this we are forbidden to be found by our Saviour to resemble them. How is this? I answer, metaphors employed by the sacred writers are not to be taken universally, but in connexion with the subject that requires illustration. It is sufficient that there be a real and striking resemblance in the article of comparison. And this is unquestionably the case here.

For we may observe, that as soon as children are ushered into the world, they cry for the nourishment God has prepared for them. And as it is in nature, so it is in grace. The new creature has wants to be relieved, and appetites to be indulged: and there is provision suited to them in religion. Hence we read, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

Again. Little children are teachable, and ready of belief. They receive with unsuspecting confidence the declaration of their father. If any doubt arises, if any dispute occurs, they run to him, and his testimony decides every thing. Thus should it be with us. We are to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child. I was going to say, We cannot be too credulous when God speaks. He cannot be imposed upon himself, and he cannot deceive us: his wisdom forbids the one, and his truth the other. What one party believes, and another denies, should have little influence over us; while we haye the judg ment of God, to which we can appeal. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." When we find any thing revealed in this book, we are not to hesitate in admitting it; we are not to reason upon it, "How can these things be?" but with a ready mind yield up ourselves to the "obedience of faith; and do all things without murmuring or disputing."

Little children also are distinguished by a freedom from anxieties. Though they possess nothing adequate to their own support, and see not the resources from which their sup plies come, they feel no uneasiness; they rely with cheerfulness on the father to provide for them; and never question his ability or his

will. And shall we despond because we are not affluent? Shall we be miserable because we are called to live by faith on the providence of God? Shall we disobey that gracious command, "casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you?" Shall we never regard the address of our Lord to his disciples? "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls!" "And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Little children are devoid of malignity. The trifling resentments they sometimes feel and discover are soon over, and they are "at one again," and as friendly as before. There is nothing implacable in them: they easily forgive, and perfectly forget. For which reason the Apostle says, "In malice be ye children;" which is the same as saying, in another place, "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

they are to "condescend to men of low estate." They are not to be ambitious of preeminence; they are not to be "desirous of vain glory; provoking one another, envying one another." They are not to "seek great things for themselves;" they are to "learn in whatsoever state they are, therewith to be content:" and, longing to be good rather than to be great, feel the sentiment of David: "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child." Having considered the nature of this temper,

II. Let us inquire THE WAY IN WHICH WE ARE TO ATTAIN IT. It is by conversion. We must be "converted,” and “become as little children." And this teaches us two things, which ought to be remembered.

First. The temper we are required possess is not in us naturally, but is the consequence of a divine change. Innate depravity is, alas! too fully established by Scripture, observation, and experience, to be denied. A man that knows himself will readily subscribe to the mortifying confession of David: "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" and ac knowledge, with Paul, "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." This being admitted, it follows, that we are not made Christians, but become such; that it is the effect not of a natural but a spiritual birth. Ye must be "born again." As creatures we are in Adam; but if any man be in Christ, "he is a new creature: old things have passed away; and, behold, all things are become new." In order to be religious, we must be saved-"saved by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."-And since this conversion is designed to produce in depraved beings such a character as our Saviour describes, it also But the thing principally, though not ex- follows that this conversion implies much clusively intended, is the humility of little more than a change of opinions, or a mere children. Hence our Saviour adds, "Who- reformation of manners. It is a renovation soever therefore shall humble himself as this in the state of the heart; in our principles, little child, the same is greatest in the king- motives, and dispositions. It turns the whole dom of heaven.' Little children have no bias of the soul another way, and proves by ideas of distinction till they are given them. its tendency that it is divine, according to They do not assume state, or stand up for the promise; "Then will I sprinkle clean points of honour. If they were not taught water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from otherwise by their hopeful parents, they all your filthiness, and from all your idols, would be satisfied with the simplest fare and will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I the plainest raiment. Left to themselves, give you, and a new spirit will I put within the children of a nobleman would play fami- you: and I will take away the stony heart liarly with the child of a peasant. They out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart have no great aims; no towering projects; of flesh. And I will put my spirit within they are pleased with little and common you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, things. and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."

And Christians are required not only to wear humility, but to be "clothed" with it. They are to be sensible of their insufficiency;

Secondly. by its effect.

This change is to be judged of
Here many people err. They

endeavour to ascertain the time and the man- ject before there can be enjoyment; if those ner, and the instrument of their conversion distinctions must be maintained which pre-and distress themselves because they can- serve the moral order and harmony of the not determine. But the grand thing is to world; if we must be like God, before we inquire whether the work be done; whether can hold intercourse with him; if light can we have passed from death to life; whether have no communion with darkness, and rightwe can say, "One thing I know, that where- eousness have no fellowship with unright as I was blind, now I see?" On the other eousness--then, upon every principle to hand, persons may talk of a change that took which either reason or religion conducts us, place in them at such a period, under such a every unrenewed sinner stands inevitably minister-of the reality of which it would be excluded from the kingdom of heaven. difficult to find any present evidence. But what has your supposed conversion done for you? In what state, in what temper has it left you? Wherein do you differ from others and from yourselves? Whom do you now resemble! The picture here pourtrayed? Do you resemble little children by your spiritual desires, your faith in God's word, your reliance on his providence, the kindness of your disposition, the humbleness of your mind? And is your want of more conformity to this model your chief distress? And are you praying, as if nothing comparatively had been yet done, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me?"

III. Let us observe THE IMPORTANCE OF POSSESSING THIS TEMPER. "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" -An exclusion the most awful; the most unavoidable; the most universal.

An exclusion, Finally, the most universal. There are few things in the world so invariably established as not to allow of some deviations. Every general rule has its exceptions. Even the fixed laws of nature have been changed; iron has been made to swim, and flames have been forbidden to burn. But be not deceived; our Saviour here reveals a law that admits of no change; and lays down a rule that allows of no exception. There never has been, there is not, there never will be, there never can be an instance even to qualify this assertion: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Let us conclude with these additional reflections.

First. From our Saviour's address, you learn to improve from the various objects we behold in the world of nature. If you wish to hold communion with God, you may be reminded of him all the day long; if you wish to learn, you never need be at a loss for a teacher: "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee." Hast thou a garden? And dost thou never walk in it but as a creature-delighted with its flowers and its fruits? Dost thou never think of that garden in which Adam fell; or of that garden in which Jesus suffered? Hast thou children? They are cares; they may be comforts; but they must be instructers and admonishers, unless we are careless and stupid in the most criminal degree.

First. The most awful. Many things court our attention that are by no means essential to our safety or welfare. We ought to be ashamed of the impressions they make upon our minds; they are unworthy of our hopes or fears; it is of little consequence whether we gain or lose them; and it will be our wonder hereafter that we could ever have been so much influenced by them. But to be deprived of the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; to be excluded from all the treasures of grace and glory; to see infinite riches, honours, and pleasures, and to hear a voice saying, They are not for thee! "There shall be weeping and gnashing of Secondly. We see what a difference there teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, is between the opinion of the world and the and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the king- judgment of God. The natural man admires dom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." the temper that will endure no insults; he If you do not deem these blessings of import-applauds the successful votary of wealth and ance now, it is because you never reflect power; he talks of a becoming pride, a noble upon them-but you will not always be able pride; to him it is a paradox that "all pride to banish thought: it is because you have is an abomination to the Lord;" that "the substitutes for them, and these divert, though meek shall inherit the earth;" that "the slow they do not satisfy-but all of them will soon to anger is better than the mighty; and he be torn from you: and what in a dying hour, that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh and in a judgment-day, will you do without a city." He wonders to hear, that if "he an interest in this heavenly kingdom! would be wise, he must become a fool that he may be wise;" that to sink in his own esteem is the way to rise in the esteem of Heaven; that he who "exalteth himself shall be abased, and he who abaseth himself shall be exalted." But such is the testimony of God; and his judgment is always according

An exclusion, Secondly, the most unavoidable. If God has said in the Scripture that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" if God must be true, and the Scripture cannot be broken; if there must be a suitableness between the faculty and the ob

to truth.

Oh that we may take our views of excellency alone from him; and make his estimate our own. "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth."

Thirdly. We congratulate those who have the Spirit of Christ. The world knoweth you not you think meanly of yourselves, and you ought for you are encompassed with infirmity-but you are heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him; an everlasting kingdom; a kingdom in comparison with which the renowned empires of the earth vanish into smoke-the kingdom of heaven! What can you desire more? How thankful, how satisfied, how happy you should live!

And how holy !

Be concerned to maintain a behaviour answerable to your state and expectation. You are princes. "Walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory."

DISCOURSE LVII.

THE LOSS OF CHILDREN. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I. bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.-2 Sam. xii. 22, 23.

THERE is much to censure in David. Yet He, whose understanding is infinite, and whose judgment is always according to truth, has pronounced him "a man after his own heart;" and told us, that " he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."

The narrative of his crime has, it is to be feared, been the occasion of hardening ungodly men in their iniquity. But this has been the consequence of perversion. It was written not for encouragement, but for caution. It cries," Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;" it shows the readiness of God to pardon the truly penitent who confess and forsake their sin; and it exemplifies not only the efficacy, but the nature of genuine repentance.

You will not wonder that I have referred to this awful event in David's history, since the subject of our present meditation is derived from it. Let us consider-HIS AFFLICTION—HIS BEHAVIOUR UNDER IT—AND THE

EXPLANATION HE GIVES OF HIS CONDUCT.

I. His AFFLICTION was the death of his child. The death of a child is by no means an uncommon event. If our offspring are

spared, and appear like olive plants around our table, we ought to be thankful, and to rejoice; yet to rejoice with trembling. When we reflect on the tenderness of their frame, and consider to how many accidents and diseases they are liable; and that many of their earliest complaints cannot be perfectly ascertained, and may be injured by the very means employed for their relief-the wonder is that they ever reach maturity.

Near half of the human race die in a state of infancy. Some have the allotment which Job so passionately wished had been hisown: "Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? Or why the breasts that I should suck!" Others are dressed and appear on the stage of mortal life; but, long before the close of a single scene, withdraw, and are found no more. Others are spared longer, and mul tiply attractions and endearments. Some begin to open their powers, as well as charms. You saw rising up the seeds of instruction you had sown; the child was forming into the companion-but you looked, and, lo! he was not-and you sighed, "Childhood and youth is vanity !"-Some lose one child from among many; and even this can ill be spared. What then must it be to lose an only one: and perhaps not the only one in possession, but the only one in hope! What a mortality is there in some families. How often have some fathers and mothers been visited with breach upon breach. Here, as I walk over the mansions of the dead, I find two buried in the same grave, and inscribed above them, "They were pleasant in life, and in death not divided." There I find six slumbering in the same bed of dust, and the stone thus vents the anguish and submission of the pa rental heart

"The dear delights we here enjoy.
And fondly call our own,

Are but short favours borrow'd now,
To be repaid anon."

"The landlord,"

The death of David's child was predicted by Nathan, and was the consequence of the father's sin. "Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that is born unto thee shall surely die." But how is it that the guilty father continues, and the innocent babe is cut off? says an old writer, "may distrain on any part of the premises he chooses." We would rather say, that there are many cases in which he requires us to walk by faith, and not by sight: that he does all things well, even when clouds and darkness are round about him: we would say, that he indem nified this child by taking it to himself while the father was punished, and suffered more relatively than if he had died himself.

The execution follows the sentence. "The

Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife barel unto David, and it was very sick."

II. Observe THE BEHAVIOUR OF DAVID

WITH REGARD TO THE AFFLICTION.

It takes in prayer-"He besought God for the child." What was so likely to enable him to gain his wishes, or to bring his mind into a state of preparation for a denial of them? Prayer is always proper: but how seasonable, how soothing, how sanctifying, in the day of trouble! Blessed resource and refuge! may we always make use of thee. "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed! lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."-" Is any afflicted, let him pray."

He also humbled himself: "He fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth." There was doubtless something peculiar in this case the child was the offspring of adultery. Much of David's distress arose from reflection on his sin: his grief was the grief not only of affliction, but of penitence. And when are our losses and trials purely afflictions? Is there nothing in our sufferings to bewail but the smart? Is it not sin that has made this world a vale of tears? Is it not our remaining depravity that constrains a merciful God to employ such painful dispensations? Are we not guilty of idolizing or undervaluing the blessings we are going to resign? May we not charge God foolishly in the trouble we are going to enter? Is it not desirable to know wherefore he contends with us? Humiliation is as necessary as prayer.

We have seen David's behaviour before the death of the child; let us remark his behaviour after it. His servants feared to tell him of the event; for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead." And what does he?

Some disregard their persons, and affect a a slovenliness in grief. But David "arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel."

Some remain invisible; and even the temple sees nothing of them during the season that peculiarly requires their attendance: for "God is known in his palaces for a refuge." But David "came into the house of the Lord and worshipped." It was to acknowledge the hand of God in his affliction; it was to say, with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; and blessed be the name of the Lord:" it was to praise him, that his sin, though chastised, was forgiven; and to beseech him to proceed no further.

Some disregard the duties of their stations and connexions in life; and weeping hinders Sowing. But David knew he had a family that demanded his attention, and whom it behoved him to convince that the exercises of religion can relieve and refresh the mind: "and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat."

Believers are "men wondered at;" and they who are estranged from the life of God cannot comprehend the principles upon which the actions of believers turn. They consider forgiveness of injuries as a proof of cowardice. They mistake deep humiliation and fervent prayer for an inordinate attachment to creatures; and view acquiescence and thankfulness under trials as senseless indifference. "Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child when it was alive; but when the child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread."

"But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, though he himself is judged of no man." His service is a reasonable service; his conduct results from conviction and motive. David therefore explains himself: "And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." This brings us to the

III. part of our subject.-" And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?"-He deemed the event uncertain. It is obvious that he did not consider the threatening as absolute and irreversible. He knew that many things had been denounced conditionally; and he knew also that the goodness of God was beyond all his thoughts.

As there seemed a possibility of success, so the desirableness of the blessing led him to avail himself of it. One might have supposed that the death of a child so young would not have been a very considerable affliction, especially as he would have been always a memorandum of his sin, and he could not have questioned his future happiness; but he speaks of his recovery as an instance of God's grace to himself-so great is the force of parental affection. His attachment indeed seems to have been extraordinary; and this was doubtless permitted of Heaven to render his correction the more severe. Such is the import of his reasoning: "I should have deemed it a peculiar favour had God spared my child; and while life remained, the indulgence of hope was not improper,.nor the use of means unlawful. Submission follows the event."

But what led him to assuage his grief? What made him-I will not say insensible,

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